I began making laundry soap to save money, but now I often wonder how clean the store bought stuff got my clothes in the first place. And what kind of wierd, unnessessary chemicals are in there? This detergent recipe is good for HE washers, and sensitive skin, by the way! (If using in HE, add it into the load of laundry, not the dispenser thing.) I invest about $13 into the ingredients needed for this recipe. It lasts for about 6 MONTHS, and I wash about 7 loads of laundry every week. That's well over 150 large loads of laundry for $13! That works out to about 8 CENTS PER LOAD! |
Here's all you need. You can find it all in the detergent isle at Walmart (usually on the bottom shelf near the oxy clean stuff) for much cheaper than the Amazon links below. Sometimes Walmart won't have all you need, so Amazon's great for that. (Amazon prices are higher because you are paying for the convenience of them shipping it to your door.) The prices below are from my local WalMart.
Here's all you have to do:
- Borax $4
- 4 lb Baking Soda (a big box, or you can buy 4 little boxes of the "great value" brand in the baking isle for less) $2
- Super Washing Soda $4
- 3 bars Fels Naptha Soap $3
Here's all you have to do:
- Pour all the boxes of borax, baking soda, and washing soda in a giant container or small trash can and mix together. (Note: I use a giant soup container that I cannot fit the whole recipe in, so I cut everything in half and save the rest for later.)
- Grab a cheesegrater that you're happy not using to great cheese again (or go buy a cheap one). Grate that soap and mix it in with the detergent. (again, I grate only 1 1/2 bars for my soup container and save the rest for later.)
- Done! Now, you only need 1 or 2 tablespoons of this stuff per load of laundry! I use 2 for large loads.
Now onto something completely (but not really so) different. My husband and I OFTEN talk about how we can cut back and save more in our finances. For the past couple of years, the answer we drew was, "We've cut back all we can and are extremely frugal." Well, after reading a few new blogs this week from others who are trying to work their way to being debt free and set apart from the "buy this cause it's cool" movement, we have discovered how WRONG we were! Here's a major example:
We live in a 2 bed, 2 bath townhouse and our electric bill is $165 - $200 every month (a little more than $200 during the hottest Summer months). Our home has POOR insulation, but I've just dealt with it because we live in a rental and we're not going to invest our own money into fixing that (and neither will the owners). But I think I'm wrong about solely blaming insulation for our bill. Shane is hot-natured and as a result we have left the a/c set to 69 degrees. I am a clean freak and wash 7-10 loads of laundry to keep all things fresh. Our dryer is on it's last leg and it takes 2 hours to dry large loads! So this month we're doing an experiment. We are LINE DRYING all clothes for the next month, and kicking the air up to 75 degrees, leaving ceiling fans on to prevent stagnant, stuffy air.
We have been at this experiment for 2 days now. The house actually feels PERFECT for both Shane and I, even better than before because of the constant air flow from the fans. Line drying everything has not been a big deal so far. Towels are not as soft, so I'm going to add fabric softener when clothes are rinsing in the washer to see if that helps.
We live in a 2 bed, 2 bath townhouse and our electric bill is $165 - $200 every month (a little more than $200 during the hottest Summer months). Our home has POOR insulation, but I've just dealt with it because we live in a rental and we're not going to invest our own money into fixing that (and neither will the owners). But I think I'm wrong about solely blaming insulation for our bill. Shane is hot-natured and as a result we have left the a/c set to 69 degrees. I am a clean freak and wash 7-10 loads of laundry to keep all things fresh. Our dryer is on it's last leg and it takes 2 hours to dry large loads! So this month we're doing an experiment. We are LINE DRYING all clothes for the next month, and kicking the air up to 75 degrees, leaving ceiling fans on to prevent stagnant, stuffy air.
We have been at this experiment for 2 days now. The house actually feels PERFECT for both Shane and I, even better than before because of the constant air flow from the fans. Line drying everything has not been a big deal so far. Towels are not as soft, so I'm going to add fabric softener when clothes are rinsing in the washer to see if that helps.
I have not tried this yet, but people on Pinterest SWEAR by it. Here is the softener recipe I will be using. (Like the detergent above, it's cheaper at Walmart but this helps you to know what you are looking for and you can still save even at these prices.)
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Just mix all ingredients together and use 2 tablespoons per load of laundry. As an added bonus you also get a much wider variety of scents with conditioner than with laundry detergent. The smell will not be very strong but you still get to choose what your clean laundry will smell like. The Best Part: This costs only pennies per load of laundry. Couple this with the homemade laundry detergent recipe above and you can get clean, soft fresh smelling laundry for about TEN CENTS PER LARGE LOAD!
So, even if you're not going crazy like we are and getting rid of your dryer and using homemade laundry detergent you can still use this awesome (and easy!) homemade fabric softener and save some money. I'll be trying this today and let you know how it goes!
So, even if you're not going crazy like we are and getting rid of your dryer and using homemade laundry detergent you can still use this awesome (and easy!) homemade fabric softener and save some money. I'll be trying this today and let you know how it goes!